All I Can Give
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: A moment between partners who are concerned for one another leads to more admissions than they were expecting.


**This is set after "A Wanted (Inhu)man," and is one of the random snippets that apparently happens when I just sit down and start typing the first line that comes to mind.**

* * *

"Hey, you okay, Mack?" Daisy asked, coming into the garage. "Fitz was in here earlier, then he came in and found me. He mentioned you were acting weird."

"I'm fine," Mack breathed instinctively, doing his best to actually _sound_ fine. But he was talking to Daisy – they were partners now, and she'd gotten to know him well enough not to buy a word coming out of his mouth.

"What's going on?" she demanded instead, worry creasing her brow as she rounded the SUV he was working on so that they were face to face.

"I'm fine," he insisted again.

"No, you're not," she argued, shaking her head firmly. "Talk to me, Mack."

"Leave me be, Tremors!" he shouted, jerking away from the hand that she extended towards him.

"No!" she shouted right back at him. Then she forcibly quieted her voice. "You are not okay. What's bothering you?"

He snorted. "We almost lost you back there because of that stupid portal, Tremors, and now?" he snorted. "Now we both know that you're ready to jump at a moment's notice to go find a homicidal Inhuman who's so unstable he's turned on everything he ever told you he believed in."

"Lincoln is a friend, Mack," Daisy argued reasonably – and it was that _reason_ that cut straight through Mack.

"You love him, Tremors; that much was pretty obvious from what I heard over our coms."

"He's a _friend_!"

"No, he's not; you love him."

"I am _not_ in love with Lincoln! Lincoln is…" she started to pace. "He's unstable, and desperate, and lonely, and probably still half under the influence of whatever my mother crammed into his head. I'm not going to fall for someone like that. Not a second time."

"Now, hold on," Mack said, moving to stop her in her pacing. "I wouldn't say he's Ward, either. You have to see that."

"I see that he's not who I want," she answered solemnly.

Mack froze for a moment before he managed to ask, somehow making it _not_ sound like he'd croaked it out, "Then who do you want?"

It was her turn to try to jerk away from the other's touch, but he held on, grabbing her elbow to make her turn back to him as he insisted, "Daisy?"

She rolled her eyes, and only then did he noticed the teary glassiness in the beautiful dark orbs as she said fiercely, "I don't know!"

"I think you do."

"If I know who I want, then you know who you want," she snapped.

"Oh," his voice lowered an octave as he took a step closer to her. "I know exactly who I want, Tremors."

"Do you?" she breathed.

He nodded, sliding his hand from her elbow to around her waist, and for a second she wasn't the budding commander of an army of the super-powered. For a second she was just a tiny, brunette, uncertain beauty, and, god help him, Mack was nothing if not a man – and one who was done fighting what he felt, at that. He bent his head down to kiss her, and her eyelids fluttered closed in anticipation – until she drew in a sharp breath, shoving forcefully at his chest.

"Mack!"

"What?" he rumbled, trying not to show his frustration as she trembled against him.

"You have no idea what you could be getting involved in," she pointed out. "No idea what my life could end up looking like – or if I could even be _alive_ next week, considering how many people are hunting Inhumans!"

"I don't care; I'd be with you based on what I already know."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know that no matter how long you live, no matter where you go, I want to be by your side as long as I can – be that sixty years or one night. That's all I'm asking for, Tremors – one night at a time. Can't we just try that?"

Daisy took a deep breath, and he saw her gaze flutter from his eyes down to his lips before she repeated in a breath, "One night at a time?"

"That's all I want," Mack assured her.

"Good, because that's all I can give." Then she rose on her tiptoes, tugging his head down so that she could kiss him. When they finally broke apart, her hair was a little wild and her face was flushed beautifully, but her eyes were perfectly clear, filled with love and sincerity, when she said, "But all I can give you is yours to take."


End file.
